STAR-ADVERTISER / 2014
Honolulu City Councilman Ron Menor.
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Honolulu City Councilman Ron Menor is expected to take the helm of the Council today, pushing colleague Ernie Martin out of a post he’s held since June 2011.
Councilman Ikaika Anderson is expected to remain as vice chairman, while Kymberly Pine is slated to become majority floor leader when the Council meets today after five of the nine members who were re-elected in November take the oath of office at noon.
Under new leadership, Joey Manahan is expected to replace Ann Kobayashi as head of the Budget Committee, Pine is expected to replace Trevor Ozawa as head of the Zoning Committee, and Anderson is expected to lead a combined Transportation and Planning Committee. The committee assignments are done by rule-making and don’t require votes today.
The new leadership is expected to be more hospitable to Mayor Kirk Caldwell, who has clashed often with Martin, Kobayashi and Ozawa.
The leadership shuffle comes amid scheduled swearing-in ceremonies for the Council and for the mayor’s office.
Caldwell, who also won re-election in November, will be sworn in by U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi at 10 a.m. at McCoy Pavilion in Ala Moana Regional Park.
Anderson, Kobayashi, Manahan, Menor and Pine, meanwhile, will be sworn in by state Supreme Court Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna at noon in the Council’s meeting chambers on the third floor of Honolulu Hale.
All five won re-election this fall. The four other Council members — Brandon Elefante, Carol Fukunaga, Ozawa and Martin — are in the middle of their four-year terms.